


you're just a daydream away

by sunset_phantom



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, I Made Myself Cry, Like Literally Only Angst, juke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28739154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_phantom/pseuds/sunset_phantom
Summary: In which Luke and Julie discuss their ~interesting little relationship~
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 52





	you're just a daydream away

**Author's Note:**

> Fic Title: A Daydream Away by All Time Low

“Does it need to be more than that?”

The question is quiet, not even a whisper. Just a small exhale, words floating in the slight wind that seeps through the cracks in the studio walls. When Luke had found her out here, huddled on the couch in the dark garage, he had poofed to her side without second thought. The way Julie had been curled into herself broke his heart. He would do anything to take that pain away from her. He just hadn’t thought that the pain would be so inextricably linked to him. Hadn’t been expecting _this_ to be the conversation she initiated. It was a conversation they had been ignoring for weeks. They both knew there was something _more_ to their relationship than just friendship and a love of music. They just hadn’t been willing to name that feeling or explore it. Until now.

“If I...if you...”

His words are stammered out. She doesn't know what she’s asking. Doesn’t understand the battle he’s already fought just to be here in this moment with her. He rubs the spot in his chest where the jolts still sometimes echo, even without Caleb’s mark burned into his skin. He’ll never forget the way it felt when his soul was being quite literally stripped from existence. Like she can sense his pain, Julie reaches her fingers up from where they had been curled into his collar. She threads her fingers tight against his, knuckles aching under the pressure. The silence between them is as endless as the moonless night outside the four walls of the building he has come to think of as his home. His arm shifts against her back, tucking her closer against his side, bodies stretched out along the length of the old couch he still thinks of as his.

“We could just be us. That could be enough.”

The words are muffled against his oversized plaid jacket. She can feel his chest rising and falling underneath her head, heartbeat steady in her ear. The melody of his lifeline. She’s so tuned into it she could compose symphonies based on nothing else. She never once stops to think about the fact that the heart beating in his chest is long dead. It’s just phantom tremors that make that noise now, muscle memory too engrained for even a ghost to ignore. It’s how she can tell he doesn’t like what she’s said. The beat ratchets up, huffy breaths making misty clouds in the cold air.

“I don’t want _enough._ I want _everything._ ”

He shouldn’t say it but he does anyway. The words are wrenched from a place in his heart not even Reggie or Alex has ever seen. Only Julie. 

_“Luke.”_

Her voice cracks, raw emotion evident in the way his name comes out sounding like a pleading sob. When she says his name like that it’s like he forgets to be anything other than who she sees him as. He desperately wants to tell her that the impossibility of it all doesn’t matter. That they can just forget about the past and the future and live only in this moment for as long as possible. It isn’t fair to them, this half-life they’re both suffering through together. Luke would give almost anything to change it. He moves one hand from it’s position on her back to tuck her face firmly into his chest. He feels the wetness of her tears seeping into his shirt, pretends when he sniffs it’s from the dust in the air and not the saltwater rising in his own eyes. 

“I know. I know.”

It’s an apology and a concession. It’s not her fault they can’t have more. Julie isn’t dead. 

_And he would never want her to be._

He just sometimes wishes he could be alive again. Actually alive, not just the kind of alive she makes him feel. Not the kind of half-alive he’s become around her. Alive enough to touch her, alive enough to hold her. Not alive enough to actually exist though. Not alive enough to grow old with her. Not alive enough to fully commit to her in the way that he so desperately wants to. Which is why everything that should be so easy between them is so hard instead.

Julie reads in between every line. She always sees through him so easily. He doesn’t even know why he tries to hide from her. Not that he ever truly wants to in the first place. Julie is the first person to love him despite every crack and flaw beneath the surface. It a heady drug, her unwavering devotion. He can't ever get enough. He’ll always want more. More than either one of them can ever give to the other. The thought sends another stabbing pain into his heart.

Feather light touches dance across his clenched jaw. Her warmth presses more firmly against him, fire lighting its way along his skin in a way that definitely feels real. Its moments like these that make it easy to see how things could be if he was more than empty air. If he was a real boy instead of a lovesick phantom haunting her every step. Silence falls between them, bodies communicating more than words ever could. 

_I’m here, I love you, I’ll never leave_ Julie’s touch says. 

_I know, I love you too, I wish I could stay forever_ Luke’s limbs respond.

They stay on the couch together as long as they can. Rain beats down against the roof and they both pretend it’s loud enough to muffle their shared tears. It’s not enough. It will never be enough. But it’s all they have, and sometimes something is better than nothing. 

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to workshop this scene for a fic and then it became much sadder than I intended. Whoops.


End file.
